ON A MISSION

Since Fire Engineering has seen fit to give me my own small mountain top to shout from, I felt compelled to establish a reasonably clear and succinct purpose to my blog and associated ramblings. This would be akin to a mission statement in the world of business. Mine would be something like: To educate, enlighten and encourage frank discussion on all matters relating to firefighting with an emphasis on peaked roof ventilation .A (mission statement) is a formal, short, written statement of the purpose of a company or organization. The mission statement should guide the actions of the organization, spell out its overall goal, provide a sense of direction, and guide decision-making. It provides the ‘framework’ or context within which the company's strategies are formulated. I include this definition only because it in many ways mirrors the way an effective incident command system works. 

One of the big differences is that each incident requires the creation of a unique "mission statement," tailored to meet an emergent situation with timeframes measured in minutes or seconds - whereas a business needs just one, crafted over a period of many weeks, months or possibly years. Depending on the incident, there will be many people carrying out different tasks on the fireground; each with their own operational mission statement. Without a clear and concise initial assessment by the incident commander (IC) - and quickly establishing the groundwork in which each company needs to operate - the mission statements of command, crews and individuals will inevitably conflict with one another. Rather than a synchronized purposeful fireground, you will get a reactive chaotic fireground which will have some firefighters and crews trying to do everything - and others left wandering around, waiting for something to happen, or someone to tell them what to do. This same type of chaotic fireground will emerge if you have established good command, but lack the crews and individuals with clear plan and purpose specific to their tasks. So I ask you, “what is your mission statement?”